1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for continuously producing filled dough pieces from a continuously fed filled cylindrical dough body, and particularly to an apparatus and method for continuously producing separate filled dough pieces of a desired shape without exposing the filler by cutting the continuously fed filled cylindrical dough body into pieces.
2. Description of Prior Art
Japanese Patent Publication No. 1169/69 discloses a confectionery molder where oppositely positioned toothed plates, each having two converging faces to form a tooth, cut a bar-shaped filled dough body conveyed on a conveyor belt, and then the upper toothed plates sway laterally to roll divided dough pieces in the space surrounded by the adjacent teeth to form spherical filler-containing dough pieces. Although this apparatus can make ball-shaped filled dough pieces, it requires a complex mechanism and the filler is liable to be exposed when the toothed plates cut the bar-shaped filler-containing dough body.
In this invention, dividers, each having a cutting edge, constrict the filled cylindrical dough body cooperatively with a pair of rotary disc cutters which cut the narrowed dough portion containing no filler, so that perfectly incrusted spherical dough pieces are produced without exposing the filler.